Most of the time, this writing lark is a fairly relaxed affair. Since my daughter started school, I’ve slipped into a remarkably civilised working routine. Sometimes though, circumstances can conspire against you to engender a scenario where there’s just nothing else for it but to – well, just not go to bed. 12th October was a good example of this. I’d been waiting all day for iOS5 to be released, as I had two tutorials to write for a prominent publication whose copy deadline, it transpired was the morning of the following day, the 13th. By the time the software was finally made available at 6pm GMT, my operating window for downloading, installing, learning and writing about the new OS had narrowed to around 17 hours.

This would have been ok, had Apple’s verification servers not been so overloaded with new requests that every attempt to install failed at the end of a lengthy and unstoppable 40-minute backup and install routine. After eight failed attempts, each one causing me to lose even more hair, I finally got it installed properly at 3am, before churning out the tutorials, sorting the required screenshots, proofing, and uploading. I got it all done with minutes to spare before the 11.30am deadline, before dashing out to have lunch in a room full of 60 4-year-olds at my daughter’s school. This experience would have been surreal at the best of times, but after not going to bed it was positively Kafka-esque.

With any luck, this next working month, the planets will be aligned slightly more favourably.